A Faithful Poster

Hmmmm.... so much to say but nothing has been said. I thought when I made this blog I would write down all of these thoughts in my head but a lot of them I have found are not what I want to share with  the Internet.... I know right, now wanting to share my thoughts with the world... crazy! But there are a couple of things I want to share....

1. I love the library, for those who are movie/book/music lovers, which is most Americans, you need to go to the library, you would be so surprised. It is wonderful, I only know one person who truly understands what I mean! I have been really into the music lately, this week I definitely got the most random things; Duffy (I love her, that she is from Whales, and is simply amazing), Classical Greatest Hits (I was feeling risky), Debussy (thank you Twilight), Tom Waits greatest hits, Wicked Soundtrack, and possibly the greatest grooviest of them all Jazz for Lovers... beat that. 

2. Movies we got were Secret Window (you know Johnny Depp is amazing), A.I (not so much my favorite, and others we have not watched yet. 

3. Books: Definitely got some living green books thanks to Jo and the countless Wal-Mart commercials and the Blue Bloods. 

I don't care how cool you think you are the library is cooler, so go. 

Just a side note, I had not intention of writing about my love for the library, but hey you get what you get. 

Oh and Happy Easter, may you remember Jesus and the cross, not just today but everyday. It's something that we should never get over but stand in awe of our perfect, wonderful, Savior. So think about it, I promise it will and continue to change your perspective on your fragile, unpredictable life you are given.

"The blood of Jesus, it is like the Widow's oil, when it's all you have, it is all you'll ever need."

A.P.

Till I blog again, 

Jessie 

A little thing called the CPSIA....

These past few months have had a whirlwind of discussion concerning a law called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)- brought about by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). This passed on Feb. 10th, 2009. People in opposition to this law were relieved when a one year stay was granted-but it has become clear that it is only to manfucaturers and importers, not distributors and retailers. The wording also makes it clear you’re still damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
This act (feel free to read it here) will drastically affect the parents of children aged 0-12, and the people who make their livelihood from selling or making products intended for these children.
According to the CPSIA, any product that is designed toward this age range is required to be tested for lead and phthalates (a pretty dangerous plastic/chemical found in many toys. It’s what makes your rubber duck squeezable) and receive certification stating the item to be free of or below the legal limit of both.
That includes all clothing, baby blankets, toys (no matter the materials used to make them), bicycles, videos, and books.
Without the testing and certification, it will be illegal to sell any of these products. This law is also retroactive, which means things that were perfectly OK for you to buy your 6 year old two months ago will now also require testing. Anything sitting in the warehouses will have to be sent back and re-tested. Now, for places like Wal-mart and Toys ‘R Us, that’s fine. No big deal. They can afford it. But what about your local thrift store or consignment shop? What about that independent bookstore downtown? Your local library? Or how about these mothers trying to supplement their income by making beautiful children’s items by hand and selling them online?

Felt Cake Play Set By Little Bitty Bakery
Wooden Grasping/ Teething Elephant Toy By Little Sapling Toys

The CPSIA includes them all.
Thrift stores won’t be required to test their items, but they will still be required to follow the law. How should they go about doing that? According to a representative from the CPSC, they should “look at it” and have a “level of confidence” about whether or not it contains lead. When these resellers do eyeball an item and say that it appears to be below the accepted lead level, anyone that purchases that item and merely claims it had lead in it can sue them into the ground. That means that most thrift stores are probably not going to take any chances and will just stop selling children’s items. That is going to cause a lot of problems for people who can’t afford to buy new clothes every time their kid grows again. And what should the people who donate/consign their used things do? Why, put them in a landfill, of course.
*Video interview*
And blog discussing the troublesome issues with the interview.

Something that makes me personally even more sick is this law’s take on books. Any children’s book printed before 1985 is as of Feb 10th, 2009 considered to be a hazardous & illegal material. The government is forcing libraries to clean out their shelves and devastating the inventory of independent bookstores. Apparently, these books contain minute traces of lead in the ink and are now considered toxic. Testing isn’t possible because the procedure would require the destruction of the book. They clearly aren’t concerned with the fact that by the time a child ate enough of these “toxic” books to induce lead poisoning, he would already have died a few times over because of the incredible amount of paper in his system.
Just a week or two ago, I was at Jessie’s apartment, looking at some beautiful copies of assorted Beatrix Potter stories (The Tale of Jeremy Fisher, Squirrel Nutkin, and others) that were printed in the 1970’s. I hope Jessie plans on keeping them, because she will be in some serious trouble if she tries to sell them online or donate them to Goodwill.
*Links to books and the CPSIA-
Books, Testing Forms and the Coming Safety Bubble by The Common Room.
Article by Red Cardigan
Troubling piece concerning books & the CPSIA

One of the biggest problems of the CPSIA will be that this will eliminate nearly all home based businesses dealing in quality, handmade children’s products. I am an avid believer in buying hand crafted goods instead of cookie cutter products that are made poorly and from inadequate materials. If I can make something, or buy something made by another person, I do. And a lot of women and men who stay at home with their children rely on selling the products they make so that they can continue to spend time with their families instead of being at the office (or perhaps it’s because they aren’t even able to find a job in this economic slump). These individuals are not going to be able to afford having their products unnecessarily tested. They won’t be making enough money; they won’t be buying nearly as much; they may have trouble clothing their kids, because they are some of the people shopping at the thrift stores; and the economy will just keep plummeting.
Raise your hand if you think any of these items have lead in them-

Flapper Beanie By PDXBeanies

Oliver Octopus Plush By KileyKoala
The Shower Print By Talchen

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about keeping our children safe. The problem with the CPSIA is that it does NOT do anything that would ensure their safety.
I got this information from a fellow blogger- Organic Baby Farm.
I directly quoted this because I feel that she has already spent the time doing the research and worded it perfectly. I don’t think that I could paraphrase it and appropriately explain it.
How Much Safer Will CPSIA Make Us?

“First, I made a list of every recall that occurred in 2008. (Yes, it took all day. I have a twisted ankle so I needed an excuse to sit down.) I got the info from the CPSC's website and for each recall jotted down a short description of the item, the hazard for which it was recalled, the number of items recalled, whether CPSIA might possibly have prevented it, how many injuries and how many deaths resulted from it, whether the recall was voluntary or not, and a quick note about what types of injuries were sustained (so that I could distinguish between bruises and broken bones).Once I had my list in the spreadsheet, I set about analyzing the data. There were 388 recall notices (some of the notices had multiple item recalls on them, for example if they were recalling more than one color of item). Together these recalls represented 31,100,159 individual products, that resulted in 665 injuries and 7 deaths. Most of the recalls (76% of them) had no injuries or deaths associated with them. That means only 24% of the recalls happened as the result of an injury or death.

A quick note about voluntary vs. involuntary recalls. There was only ONE involuntary recall in all of 2008, and it was from a company that had had multiple large recalls in a short period of time and gone out of business. The company that bought its assets refused to conduct the recall, but the retailers jumped right in and went ahead with it, in cooperation with the CPSC. And this one recall was for a bassinet with a strangulation hazard, from which 2 kids had died.

Another point that bears making is that most, but not all, of the recalls for lead paint and lead exposure were ones that would have been prevented by CPSIA. 90% of them would have been (63), but 10% of them (7) were for items definitely not intended for children, such as key chains and candle charms. Wherever there was doubt whether an item might be a "children's item" I pre-emptively ruled that it was a children's item. So for example the Harry Potter bookends that were recalled for lead paint got classed as a children's item for purposes of my analysis. There was one injury from lead exposure from the non-CPSIA lead violations; I didn't count it as one that CPSIA would have prevented, because it was from exposure to a lead-containing adult product (a keychain, in this case).Of the 63 recalls that would have been prevented by CPSIA, only 1 resulted in an injury (a child ingested lead paint from a crib and had elevated blood levels of lead). This means that had CPSIA been in place for 2008, one child would have been helped.Think about that: all the expense to which we are going, all the ruination of all the businesses, all of that would only have helped ONE small child be safer.

Now think about how many children we could help if we instituted a lead paint abatement program. According to CDC data, in 2006 there were 39,526 children with blood levels of lead in excess of 10 ug/dl (the level of concern). If we are truly concerned about lead poisoning in children, why don't we start with the 39,525 children who did NOT contract lead poisoning from children's goods?”

Please, take a moment to write your congressman and your senator to tell them to join in against this act and pass an amendment through that will fix this devastating law.
Find your congressmen’s address here.
Find your senator’s address here.
Use this sample email.
Sign the petition here.
(it will ask for a donation afterwards, but you do not have to give)
Email the CPSC directly here.

You can read more of Jo's thoughts on her blog.